Events

Pre-1600

• 3102 BC Kali Yuga, the fourth and final yuga of Hinduism, starts with the death of Krishna.

• 1229 The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.

• 1268 The Battle of Wesenberg is fought between the Livonian Order and Dovmont of Pskov.

• 1332 Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.

1601–1900

• 1637 Eighty Years' War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by six warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.

• 1735 The ballad opera called Flora, or Hob in the Well went down in history as the first opera of any kind to be produced in North America (Charleston, S.C.)

• 1781 Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opens his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa (present-day Ghana).

• 1791 Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective 4 March, after that state had existed for 14 years as a de facto independent largely unrecognized state.

• 1797 French Revolutionary Wars: Sir Ralph Abercromby and a fleet of 18 British warships invade Trinidad.

• 1814 Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Montereau.

• 1861 In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.

• 1861 With Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.

• 1873 Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.

• 1878 John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.

• 1885 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.

• 1900 Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.

1901–present

• 1906 Édouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.

• 1911 The first official flight with airmail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India (now India), when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about away.

• 1915 U-boat Campaign: The Imperial German Navy institutes unrestricted submarine warfare in the waters around Great Britain and Ireland.

• 1930 While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.

• 1930 Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.

• 1932 The Empire of Japan creates the independent state of Manzhouguo (the obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) free from the Republic of China and installed former Chinese Emperor Puyi as Chief Executive of the State.

• 1938 Second Sino-Japanese War: During the Nanking Massacre, the Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed "Nanking International Rescue Committee", and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart.

• 1942 World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.

• 1943 World War II: The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.

• 1943 World War II: Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.

• 1945 World War II: American and Brazilian troops kick off Operation Encore in Northern Italy, a successful limited action in the Northern Apennines that prepares for the western portion of the Allied Spring offensive.

• 1946 Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors

• 1947 First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to the mountains.

• 1954 The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.

• 1955 Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot "Wasp" is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.

• 1957 Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.

• 1957 Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.

• 1965 The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

• 1970 The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

• 1972 The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, (6 Cal.3d 628) invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment.

• 1977 The Xinjiang 61st Regiment Farm fire started during Chinese New Year when a firecracker ignited memorial wreaths of the late Mao Zedong, killing 694 personnel. It remains the deadliest fireworks accident in the world.

• 1977 A thousand armed soldiers raid Kalakuta Republic, the commune of Nigerian singer Fela Kuti, leading to the death of Funmilayo Anikulapo Kuti.

• 1977 The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747.

• 1979 Richard Petty wins a then-record sixth Daytona 500 after leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crash on the final lap of the first NASCAR race televised live flag-to-flag.

• 1983 Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.

• 1991 The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at Paddington station and Victoria station in London.

• 2001 FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

• 2001 Sampit conflict: Inter-ethnic violence between Dayaks and Madurese breaks out in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, ultimately resulting in more than 500 deaths and 100,000 Madurese displaced from their homes.

• 2003 192 people die when an arsonist sets fire to a subway train in Daegu, South Korea.

• 2004 Up to 295 people, 182 of which being rescue workers, die near Nishapur, Iran, when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.

• 2010 WikiLeaks publishes the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning.

• 2013 Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium.

• 2014 Revolution of Dignity: At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kyiv, Ukraine.

• 2018 Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704 crashes in the Dena sub-range in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, Resulting in 66 Deaths

• 2021 Perseverance, a Mars rover designed to explore Jezero crater on Mars, as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission, lands successfully.

Births

Pre-1600

• 1201 Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Persian scientist and writer (died 1274)

• 1372 Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Egyptian jurist and scholar (died 1448)

• 1486 Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Indian monk and saint (died 1534)

• 1516 Mary I, Queen of England (died 1558)

• 1530 Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese daimyō (died 1578)

• 1543 Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (died 1608)

• 1547 Bahāʾ al-dīn al-ʿĀmilī, founder of Isfahan School of Islamic Philosophy (died 1621)

• 1559 Isaac Casaubon, Swiss philologist and scholar (died 1614)

• 1589 Henry Vane the Elder, English politician (died 1655)

• 1589 Maarten Gerritsz Vries, Dutch explorer (died 1646)

1601–1900

• 1602 Per Brahe the Younger, Swedish soldier and politician, Governor-General of Finland (died 1680)

• 1602 Michelangelo Cerquozzi, Italian painter (died 1660)

• 1609 Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (died 1674)

• 1626 Francesco Redi, Italian physician (died 1697)

• 1632 Giovanni Battista Vitali, Italian violinist and composer (died 1692)

• 1642 Marie Champmeslé, French actress (died 1698)

• 1658 Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French philosopher and author (died 1743)

• 1732 Johann Christian Kittel, German organist and composer (died 1809)

• 1745 Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist, invented the battery (died 1827)

• 1754 Emanuel Granberg, Finnish church painter (died 1797)

• 1817 Lewis Armistead, American general (died 1863)

• 1818 John O'Shanassy, Irish-Australian politician, 2nd Premier of Victoria (died 1883)

• 1818 Konstanty Schmidt-Ciążyński, Polish collector and art connoisseur who donated a large collection to the National Museum in Kraków (died 1889)

• 1836 Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Indian mystic and yogi (died 1886)

• 1838 Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (died 1916)

• 1848 Louis Comfort Tiffany, American stained glass artist (died 1933)

• 1849 Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author, playwright, and politician (died 1906)

• 1850 George Henschel, German-English singer-songwriter, pianist, and conductor (died 1934)

• 1855 Jean Jules Jusserand, French historian, author, and diplomat, French Ambassador to the United States (died 1932)

• 1860 Anders Zorn, Swedish artist (died 1920)

• 1862 Charles M. Schwab, American businessman, co-founded Bethlehem Steel (died 1939)

• 1867 Hedwig Courths-Mahler, German writer (died 1950)

• 1871 Harry Brearley, English inventor (died 1948)

• 1883 Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek philosopher, author, and playwright (died 1957)

• 1885 Henri Laurens, French sculptor and illustrator (died 1954)

• 1893 Maksim Haretski, Belarusian prose writer, journalist and activist (died 1938)

• 1890 Edward Arnold, American actor (died 1956)

• 1890 Adolphe Menjou, American actor (died 1963)

• 1892 Wendell Willkie, American captain, lawyer, and politician (died 1944)

• 1896 Li Linsi, Chinese educator and diplomat (died 1970)

• 1898 Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet and politician, 1st Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (died 1980)

• 1899 Arthur Bryant, English historian and journalist (died 1985)

1901–present

• 1903 Nikolai Podgorny, Ukrainian engineer and politician (died 1983)

• 1906 Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician and academic (died 1980)

• 1909 Wallace Stegner, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (died 1993)

• 1914 Pee Wee King, American singer-songwriter and fiddler (died 2000)

• 1915 Phyllis Calvert, English actress (died 2002)

• 1915 Joe Gordon, American baseball player and manager (died 1978)

• 1919 Jack Palance, American boxer and actor (died 2006)

• 1920 Rolande Falcinelli, French organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue (died 2006)

• 1921 Mary Amdur, American toxicologist and public health researcher (died 1998)

• 1921 Oscar Feltsman, Ukrainian-Russian pianist and composer (died 2013)

• 1922 Eric Gairy, Grenadan politician, 1st Prime Minister of Grenada (died 1997)

• 1922 Helen Gurley Brown, American journalist and author (died 2012)

• 1922 Connie Wisniewski, American baseball player (died 1995)

• 1925 George Kennedy, American actor (died 2016)

• 1926 Wallace Berman, American painter and illustrator (died 1976)

• 1927 Fazal Mahmood, Pakistani cricketer (died 2005)

• 1929 Len Deighton, English historian and author (died 2026)

• 1929 André Mathieu, Canadian pianist and composer (died 1968)

• 1931 Johnny Hart, American cartoonist, co-created The Wizard of Id (died 2007)

• 1931 Toni Morrison, American novelist and editor, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2019).

• 1932 Miloš Forman, Czech-American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2018)

• 1933 Yoko Ono, Japanese-American multimedia artist and musician

• 1933 Bobby Robson, English footballer and manager (died 2009)

• 1933 Mary Ure, Scottish-English actress (died 1975)

• 1934 Audre Lorde, American writer and activist (died 1992)

• 1936 Jean M. Auel, American author

• 1939 Claude Ake, Nigerian political scientist and academic (died 1996)

• 1940 Fabrizio De André, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1999)

• 1941 Irma Thomas, American singer-songwriter

• 1944 Elizabeth Nunez, American novelist (died 2024)

• 1946 Michael Buerk, English journalist

• 1946 Jess Walton, American actress

• 1947 Dennis DeYoung, American musician, singer, and songwriter

• 1947 Eliot Engel, American politician (died 2026)

• 1950 Nana Amba Eyiaba I, Ghanaian queen mother and advocate

• 1950 John Hughes, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2009)

• 1950 Cybill Shepherd, American actress

• 1951 Queen Komal of Nepal

• 1951 Isabel Preysler, Filipino-Spanish journalist

• 1952 Randy Crawford, American jazz and R&B singer

• 1952 Maurice Lucas, American basketball player (died 2010)

• 1952 Juice Newton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

• 1954 John Travolta, American actor, singer and producer

• 1955 Lisa See, American writer and novelist

• 1957 Marita Koch, German sprinter

• 1957 Vanna White, American television personality

• 1959 Jayne Atkinson, English-American actress

• 1960 Andy Moog, Canadian ice hockey player

• 1960 Greta Scacchi, Italian-Australian actress

• 1961 Douglas Rushkoff, American media and cultural theorist, author, and documentarian

• 1964 Matt Dillon, American actor

• 1965 Dr. Dre, American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur

• 1966 Phillip DeFreitas, Dominican-English cricketer

• 1966 Ryan Wesley Routh, American attempted assassin of Donald Trump

• 1967 Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer

• 1967 Colin Jackson, Welsh sprinter and hurdler

• 1968 Molly Ringwald, American actress

• 1968 Tommy Tallarico, American video game music composer

• 1969 Alexander Mogilny, Russian ice hockey player

• 1971 Thomas Bjørn, Danish golfer

• 1974 Carrie Ann Baade, American painter and academic

• 1974 Radek Černý, Czech footballer

• 1974 Julia Butterfly Hill, American environmentalist and author

• 1974 Jillian Michaels, American personal trainer and television personality

• 1975 Gary Neville, English footballer

• 1977 Ike Barinholtz, American actor and comedian

• 1977 Kristoffer Polaha, American actor

• 1980 Nik Antropov, Kazakhstani-Canadian ice hockey player

• 1980 Regina Spektor, Russian-American musician and songwriter

• 1981 Andrei Kirilenko, Russian-American basketball player

• 1981 Alex Ríos, American baseball player

• 1982 Christian Tiffert, German footballer

• 1983 Kara Braxton, American basketball player (died 2026)

• 1983 Jermaine Jenas, English footballer

• 1983 Jason Maxiell, American basketball player

• 1984 Carlos Kameni, Cameroonian footballer

• 1986 Kyle Weaver, American basketball player

• 1988 Roman Neustädter, German-Russian footballer

• 1988 Sarah Sutherland, American actress

• 1988 Maiara Walsh, American-Brazilian actress

• 1989 Sonja Vasić, Serbian basketball player

• 1990 Monica Aksamit, American saber fencer

• 1990 Didi Gregorius, Dutch baseball player

• 1990 Cody Hodgson, Canadian ice hockey player

• 1990 Bryan Oviedo, Costa Rican footballer

• 1991 Sebastian Neumann, German footballer

• 1992 Le'Veon Bell, American football player

• 1992 Martin Marinčin, Slovak ice hockey player

• 1992 Logan Miller, American actor

• 1993 Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, American basketball player

• 1994 J-Hope, South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter, dancer, and record producer

• 1994 Paul Zipser, German basketball player

• 1995 Nathan Aké, Dutch footballer

• 1996 Tyler Dorsey, American-Greek basketball player

• 1997 DK, South Korean singer

• 1997 Odysseas Adam, Greek volleyball player

• 1997 Brandon Jones, American racing driver

• 1998 Vernon, South Korean and American rapper, singer and songwriter

• 2000 Zakaria Aboukhlal, Moroccan footballer

• 2000 Giacomo Raspadori, Italian footballer

• 2001 Tanguy Coulibaly, French footballer

• 2001 Jaime Jaquez Jr., American basketball player

• 2002 Manu Bhaker, Indian sports shooter

Deaths

Pre-1600

• 675 Colmán, bishop of Lindisfarne

• 814 Angilbert, Frankish monk and diplomat (born 760)

• 901 Thābit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and physician (born 826)

• 999 Gregory V, pope of the Catholic Church (born 972)

• 1139 Yaropolk II, Grand Prince of Kiev (born 1082)

• 1218 Berthold V, duke of Zähringen (born 1160)

• 1225 Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk, Norman nobleman

• 1294 Kublai Khan, Mongol emperor (born 1215)

• 1379 Albert II, duke of Mecklenburg (born 1318)

• 1397 Enguerrand VII, French nobleman (born 1340)

• 1455 Fra Angelico, Italian priest and painter (born 1395)

• 1478 George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, English nobleman (born 1449; executed)

• 1502 Hedwig Jagiellon, duchess of Bavaria (born 1457)

• 1535 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German magician, astrologer, and theologian (born 1486)

• 1546 Martin Luther, German priest and theologian, leader of the Protestant Reformation (born 1483)

• 1564 Michelangelo, Italian sculptor and painter (born 1475)

1601–1900

• 1654 Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French author (born 1594)

• 1658 John Villiers, Viscount Purbeck, English courtier (born c. 1591)

• 1683 Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch painter (born 1620)

• 1695 William Phips, governor of Massachusetts (born 1650)

• 1712 Louis, Dauphin of France, (born 1682)

• 1743 Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, Italian noble (born 1667)

• 1748 Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (born 1677)

• 1772 Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, Danish politician (born 1712)

• 1778 Joseph Marie Terray, French economist and politician, Controller-General of Finances (born 1715)

• 1780 Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian pastor and poet (born 1714)

• 1788 John Whitehurst, English geologist and clockmaker (born 1713)

• 1803 Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet and educator (born 1719)

• 1851 Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician and academic (born 1804)

• 1873 Vasil Levski, Bulgarian activist, founded the Internal Revolutionary Organization (born 1837)

• 1880 Nikolay Zinin, Russian organic chemist (born 1812)

• 1893 Serranus Clinton Hastings, American lawyer and politician, 1st Chief Justice of California (born 1814)

1901–present

• 1902 Charles Lewis Tiffany, American businessman, founded Tiffany & Co. (born 1812)

• 1910 Lucy Stanton, American activist (born 1831)

• 1915 Frank James, American soldier and criminal (born 1843)

• 1933 James J. Corbett, American boxer and actor (born 1866)

• 1938 David King Udall, American missionary and politician (born 1851)

• 1956 Gustave Charpentier, French composer (born 1860)

• 1960 Gertrude Vanderbilt, American stage actress (born )

• 1966 Grigory Nelyubov, Soviet pilot and military officer (born 1934)

• 1967 J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist and academic (born 1904)

• 1969 Dragiša Cvetković, Serbian lawyer and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (born 1893)

• 1977 Andy Devine, American actor (born 1905)

• 1981 Jack Northrop, American engineer and businessman, founded the Northrop Corporation (born 1895)

• 1982 Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author (born 1895)

• 2001 Balthus, Polish-Swiss painter and illustrator (born 1908)

• 2001 Dale Earnhardt, American racer and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion (born 1951)

• 2014 Mavis Gallant, Canadian-French author and playwright (born 1922)

• 2014 Maria Franziska von Trapp, Austrian-American singer (born 1914)

• 2015 Elchanan Heilprin, Slovak-born English rabbi (born 1920 or 1922)

• 2019 Alessandro Mendini, Italian designer and architect (born 1931)

• 2020 Flavio Bucci, Italian actor and voice actor (born 1947)

• 2025 Gene Hackman, award-winning American actor (born 1930)

• 2025 Gerald Ridsdale, Australian laicised Catholic priest and sex offender (born 1934)

• 2025 Hurricane, American secret service canine (born 2009)

• 2026 Borislav Paravac, Bosnian Serb politician, 8th Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (born 1943)

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day:

• Bernadette Soubirous (France)

• Colmán of Lindisfarne

• Flavian of Constantinople

• Geltrude Comensoli

• Simeon of Jerusalem (Western Christianity)

• February 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• Dialect Day (Amami Islands, Japan)

• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Gambia from the United Kingdom in 1965

• Kurdish Students Union Day (Iraqi Kurdistan)

• National Democracy Day, celebrates the 1951 overthrow of the Rana dynasty (Nepal)

References

External links

• BBC: On This Day

• Historical Events on February 18